What lies in The Mist?

If you haven’t read the novella by The Mist by Stephen King– which I can only assume most viewers have not, given the novella format not being as widely available – you may take a glimpse at tone of the trailers and think that The Mist is another The Fog remake, but rest assured it’s not. While sometimes considered ominous looking on their own, fog and mist have many elemental similarities, but that’s where similarities end regarding storylines.
Something that I’ve always found interesting about works of Stephen King, which I think much of the time goes un-noticed, is that his works are almost always about much more than horror or the supernatural. While he may draw ideas from either of these, like having the mist be some deadly entity, but if you look deeper, you notice that the story is about the human nature of the people trapped inside the supermarket. This isn’t always the case, but look at some his other popular stories such as The Stand, in which we see religion and redemption as central themes of the storyline that just so happens to be intertwined by a plague. In short, The Mist, like other Stephen King stories, is about the fight between good and evil. True, it’s sometimes hard to find the line between the two and The Mist is no different in that regard. The characters are forced to take sides, look into themselves, believe in each other, test faith and religious beliefs.
I can’t say as though I was overly scared watching this, but I loved it. It is classic Stephen King with all the aforementioned creative pieces and yes, there is certainly the fear factor. I can only imagine myself in the situation these people are in. I try to imagine something like this happening and not having a clue if it would end or if indeed the world was coming to an end.

I guess I'll flip-flop a little

Just two days ago, I wrote right here that reviewing novels or books should be kept to those with the expertise to do so. While I still agree with that... two days later, I feel compelled to comment on a movie recently saw. Nope, I'm not an expert on movies, but I think I know a little about motion pictures. My opinions probably differ greatly to those of the Hollywood pundits and the Oscar watchers, but I'm okay with that. We all have our subjective tastes and favorite film genres. My favorite, probably either thrillers or sci-fi, but I still watch a wide range of movies.
As Halloween approaches, I've yet to see Rob Zombie's take on the holiday classic, but I did stop in to Blockbuster the other night after 28 Weeks Later came out. Part of me wanted to see if the filmmakers would again take the notion of zombies to another level like they did with the original release, 28 Days Later. Another part of me was intrigued by how this film actually got acclaim. And there was also the part of me that always enjoys taking a trip back to my teenage days as an ex-patriot living in London.
What I found was surprising in that the sequel actually seemed to have more of a plot than the original. It certainly had a bigger budget and I felt that the cinematography and special effects were excellent. In my very subjective opinion, I thought the movie was pretty good. What does that mean? Truly nothing more than that it entertained me. I don't see any awards in the works, but to say it kept me on the edge of my seat would be agreeable.
For folks that like graphic violence and gore, this is your type of movie. I don't really fit into that category, but I actually found myself caring enough about the characters to see past it. So while I don't want to give anything away regarding the plot, I will say that anyone wanting to escape to a world even more terrifying and disturbing than our own should rent this movie. I wouldn't; however, recommend it to families or the faint at heart.